BMA, IMC, BPWA jointly organized a panel discussion on: Sexual harassment of women at the workplace...(Implementation of Vishaakha guidelines)

Some of the panelists: Dr Vibhuti Patel, Poorvi Chothani, Hafiza Golandaz,Sadhana Dadich, Mihir Desai, Hanksey Thikeka...

Some of the pointers that I picked up during the discussion:


Some of the males believe: ...Women ask for it and if they do not accept it, they have no sense of humour...

Women keep quiet when sexually harassed because they are afraid that they will be accused of provoking it...

violating the modesty of a woman is a criminal offence...yet not all are criminal offences...

Sadly if women continously report such behaviour, companies decide to reduce the engagement of women in the workforce...

To sum it.
However we dress, Wherever we go
Yes means Yes and No means No!
Signed:
Women

Orla writes:
Hi Shakkun
In 1986 I had to take training (because i was a supervisor as well as employee) on the Training in Prevention of Sexual Harrassment (TIPOSH). I was working for the military at the time. the training involved films and scenarios. When sanat's niece went to work in Kolkatta afer college I told her what to do if she ever got harrassed. (guys should get warned as well since they get harrassed as well at times) I did this as no female in the family had ever had a job in an outside organization so would not be thinking along those lines. No organization is immune from sexual harrassment including 'religous ones"!
... You can put it on your blog...i never blogged before! One thing you might want to add to it is what the particular law is in India that people can run to for cover if they are experiencing harrassment, have voiced a complaint and it still continues. Voicing the complaint is the crucial thing...otherwise it is seen in retrospect as compliance.

An aside.....In a corporation in the states it is usually the personnel office (the one that hires and fires and handles benefits complaints etc) that handles such complaints. they have been known to squash things too if the perpetrator has power. Then the person has to go out and seek refuge in the law. In smaller businesses it would automatically be the law as they would not have that department in their work enviornment. Unfortunatly, a lot of times, people just leave and the behavior may or may not continue with the replacement employee.
When one of the supreme court justices was up for nomination there was a complaint against his appointment by a previous employee, Anita Hill, also a lawyer. He got nominated and she got slightly ridiculed...the press trying to site the usual things...she was flirtatious, she was jilted etc etc but it was a big big deal. I look at him now and I cringe.

See you soon.

Orla